Benno Niggemeyer

Benno Niggemeyer (1976)

Benno Anton Niggemeyer (born September 12, 1912 in Dortmund ; † December 16, 1980 there ) worked as a message courier in the resistance against the Nazi regime . His resistance against the Nazi regime is also recognized in the exhibition in the Steinwache Dortmund .

Life

Niggemeyer was born in 1912 as the son of a master tailor. In 1930 he joined the Center Party and the Windthorstbund . Until 1937 he worked for the Jewish banking house Gebr. Stern . After its closure by the National Socialists , he worked at the Beamtenbank Dortmund.

From 1935 until the beginning of the war in 1939 he worked for the Catholic weekly newspaper " Der Deutsche Weg ", which appeared in the Netherlands and was published by the emigrated Catholic workers' secretary Josef Wilhelm Steinhage and Father Friedrich Muckermann SJ. Von Niggemeyer repeatedly appeared in the newspaper under the pseudonym "Paolo Marconi" or anonymously, in which he reported on the situation of the church in Dortmund. He transported his manuscripts by bicycle across the border to Oldenzaal or he put them into the rail mail car of the Warsaw-Paris express train. He brought copies of the newspaper back to Dortmund, where he distributed them to friends of opinion. Here he also participated in the distribution of other church writings and had close ties with the Jesuit branch in Arndtstrasse.

In 1941 he was called up for military service, from which he was released after three months due to an eye problem. Immediately after the war ended, he sought contact with his political friends and was a co-founder of the CDU in Westphalia.

From 1946 he worked as CDU party secretary - later district manager - in Dortmund and in this function also worked with Konrad Adenauer . From 1956 to 1969 Benno Niggemeyer was a member of the Dortmund city council. In 1964 he took over the position of HR manager at Hoesch -Export in Dortmund.

During his political work he was always concerned with an order according to Christian-social ideas. He worked particularly closely with the Protestant friends to whom he had built a bridge through Christian Ebert and Gustav Hötter. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Dortmund Ring of Honor in 1966 .

Niggemeyer, who took an active part in the church life of the Catholic St. Patrokli congregation in Kirchhörde, died on December 16, 1980.

In 2002 the Benno-Niggemeyer-Weg in Dortmund - Menglinghausen was named in his honor.

literature

• Resistance and persecution in Dortmund 1933-1945 , ISBN 3-9802117-7-0 , p. 234
• Günther Högl: Dortmund in reconstruction 1945-1960. Documentation from the City Archives , ISBN 3-7932409-1-6 , p. 183